[156] A similar paradox was accidentally revealed in the case of the paddlewheel. It was at first thought that, the broader the floats the greater would be the pull. A certain steam vessel, however, being found to have too much beam to allow her to pass into a lock, was altered by having her floats and paddle-boxes made narrower. It was found that her speed had thereby been improved (Otway).
[157] Note sur l’État des Forces Navales de la France, 1844.
[158] Parliamentary Report on Screw Propulsion in H.M. Navy, 1850.
[159] Sir Howard Douglas was instrumental in bringing to the notice of the Government the aggressive aims implied by the Enquête Parlementaire: His notes were printed confidentially in ’53 at the press of the Foreign Office. Vide his Defence of England, published in 1860.
[160] The Navies of the World. Hans Busk, M.A., 1859.
[161] The details of these trials against iron plate will be found in Sir Howard Douglas’ Naval Gunnery, third and subsequent editions.
[162] The rapid construction of over two hundred gunboats and their steam machinery revealed the enormous industrial capacity of this country, and constituted a feat of which the whole nation was rightly proud. For instance of successful organization, Messrs. Penn of Greenwich contracted to build eighty sets of main engines in three months—a proposition ridiculed as impossible. By the rapid distribution of duplicate patterns throughout the country the resources of all the greatest firms were utilized, and the contract was fulfilled almost to the day!
Some seven or eight years later, when the building of ironclads was being debated in parliament, the government was able to recall this achievement as an argument for not building too many ships of a new and probably transitional type. If we liked, it was said, we could soon produce a fleet of ironclads far greater than all the other Powers of Europe besides.
[163] J. Scott Russell: The Fleet of the Future: Iron or Wood? 1861.
[164] Reed: Our Ironclad Ships.